The Best Of The Year - Medical Romance. Carol Marinelli

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СКАЧАТЬ outraced the front edge of the avalanche, joining those near the bottom of the slope who’d escaped unharmed. A few of them were trying to climb back up the steep hill to get to their companions. But who knew if or when the snow would shift again?

      “I’m going with you.”

      “Jack, those slopes are very different from the one we’re on now. I don’t want to have to worry about you too.”

      “You won’t have to.” He motioned to the bottom of the hill. “I’ll ski the rest of the way down and walk over. I’ve done some rock-climbing. I’ll make my way back up. You can’t handle that many injuries on your own.”

      He was right. Until help arrived, she was going to have her hands full.

      “Okay, go.”

      He started down the hill, while Mira made the call to the office. They would already know about the avalanche, but she wanted to make sure they knew the numbers. When Chuck Miller answered, she was brief and to the point. “About seven skiers buried. Call in search and rescue. Tell them to get Anson Graves and his dog up here, just in case.”

      She’d worked with the search and rescue expert before. He was the best there was. She only hoped he could get here in time.

      Pushing off with her poles, she began to quickly make her way across the slope in sweeping lateral motions—like a sailboat that had to go against the wind. She used the downward momentum to drive her to the side. The off-piste areas were more challenging, but Mira had been on the slopes all her life. They were nothing she hadn’t done before. It wasn’t normally under these kinds of circumstances, though.

      One of her skis skated over a buried rock, and she lurched sideways before correcting herself, her heart loping across her chest for a few seconds. In the silence that followed the avalanche she could now hear muffled screams of those on the affected slope, as well as cries of dismay from other nearby skiers. Her ex caught up with her halfway to the site.

      “What can I do?”

      This wasn’t the time for a war of words or anything else, and they both knew it. She needed as much help right now as she could get. “Gather up some of the other instructors and send them over to the slope. We have to see if we can get those people out, and fast.” If the avalanche victims weren’t rescued almost immediately, they’d die.

      “On it.” He didn’t question her authority, just thumbed his phone and spoke to someone, before starting back down the slope with a quick salute.

      Her glance went back to Jack. He was already at the bottom and had his skis off, leaving them where they were while he sprinted toward the other slope in his heavy boots.

      Mira skied faster, taking a group of moguls in her stride as she stayed the course.

      She glanced at her watch, keeping track of time as she knew oxygen deprivation caused by suffocation was a very real concern for avalanche victims, although the cold was one thing in their favor in that respect.

      Two minutes. One more off-piste and she’d be there.

      She took a deep breath as she ventured off the groomed slopes and onto the rugged terrain that separated her from her patients. This was one of the most challenging off-piste sections on the resort, and she’d only attempted it a couple of times. It was also one of the reasons she’d insisted that Jack not follow her across. She couldn’t concentrate on getting to where she needed to be if she had to rescue Jack from a bad spill or crash.

      She bypassed one tree, only to whizz past another so close that a branch caught at the sleeve of her jacket. She had to jerk her arm free to avoid being dragged sideways and off her feet. The sound of ripping fabric told her it had worked.

      A few more yards of bumps and swerves as she made her way across, and then she came out of it, sailing onto the much smoother section to her left. The slope was steep and slick and it still took most of her concentration to navigate around unstable clumps of snow. Keeping her gaze focused on where she’d seen the small group of people go down, she sliced to a halt when her skis bogged down in a thicker drift. A few skiers had made it back up and were out of their skis, poking their poles into the snow. One person was digging about ten yards away.

      “Found someone here,” said the man closest to her.

      Mira clicked out of her skis and slogged several yards in snow up to her thighs before dropping to her knees beside the man.

      “Try to uncover the face first,” she directed.

      She immediately joined in scooping snow, hitting a jacket a few inches down. A black zipper ran down the middle of it. Thank God the person wasn’t face down. They quickly worked their way up and found a young woman. Mira leaned down to feel her pulse and listen for signs of breathing.

      There! A gasped breath and the flicker of eyelids.

      “Can you stay here and uncover her as much as possible? Don’t move her at all, though. I’m going to see if I can help some of the others.”

      Robert and Jack arrived within seconds of each other, and while Robert sent the other man an angry glare he didn’t question his right to be there. He’d probably already heard that Jack was a doctor. And judging from the snide comment he’d lobbed at him on the way down the slope, her ex had overheard her and Ellory’s conversation in the bar and knew about that stupid resolution of hers.

      No time to worry about any of that right now. They had to get these people out of the snow. And fast. “Robert, I saw at least two others go down about twenty yards to your left.”

      “Right.” Her ex headed toward to the spot.

      “Help!” yelled someone to her right. “I found someone, but he’s not breathing.”

      Suffocation and crush injuries were their biggest worries right now, although the last person she’d found had been closer to the surface than she’d expected.

      Jack motioned to her. “I’ll get it, you keep looking.”

      Waiting to make sure he successfully navigated to the location, she paused and her cellphone went off. She mashed the button. “Can’t talk now.”

      “Anson’s five minutes out.” Chuck’s voice came through.

      “Got it.”

      She dumped her phone back into her jacket pocket while she fought her way through snow that was now almost hip deep as she joined in the search. No one that she’d seen had been much higher up on the slope than she was now, and even if they had been they’d have been knocked downhill some way from the force of the snow.

      “Any idea how many are missing?” she yelled into the general melee. She’d counted seven, but it had been hard to tell how many had actually gone down.

      “I don’t know, but my brother is in here somewhere,” a woman called back to her from ten yards down the hill.

      Thank God this was a more advanced slope. She’d seen no children on it when that thing had come thundering down the mountain.

      She pushed toward the woman, whose black tracks of mascara bore witness to her distress. “Where was he when you last saw him?”

      “Right СКАЧАТЬ